Should sandwich chains be worried about Starbucks?
Starbucks has expanded its food selections from scones and muffins to more-filling sandwiches. Should other fast food chains and independent sandwich shops be worried?
Starbucks' Chicken Artichoke Panini. Starbucks has expanded its food selections from scones and muffins to more-filling sandwiches.
Starbucks/File
When Starbucks鈥� food menu was scones and muffins it easily could be dismissed as a competitive threat to quick-service and fast-casual chains. But the appearance of beef on its summer menu reaffirms just how much Starbucks has become a foodservice force with which burger and sandwich chains鈥攁nd independents鈥攎ust reckon.
In addition to several new snack items, Starbucks says it is adding 鈥渦nique lunch and dinner options,鈥� and its mention of dinner should set off alarms in every restaurant that caters to that daypart. Saying it is accommodating customers 鈥渨ho have requested a heartier sandwich,鈥� Starbucks鈥� summer menu includes a聽BBQ Beef Brisket on Sourdough, a meaty sandwich with a fast-casual pedigree.
鈥淭he recipe was inspired by our product development team鈥檚聽West Coast roots,鈥� said Ellie Halevy, Starbucks VP- Food., in a release announcing the menu.聽鈥淭his sandwich was crafted with high-quality ingredients including iconic San Francisco-Style sourdough, roasted onions braised in Gordon Biersch Blonde Bock Beer and Sonoma Jack cheese, both from Northern California.鈥�
Also on the menu is a聽Chicken Santa Fe Sandwich聽that puts the Chicken Artichoke Panini it introduced earlier this year on Ancient Grain Flatbread. Both new sandwiches are a reasonable 510 calories.
Starbucks says its 鈥渨arm sandwiches鈥濃�攚hich are only a step away from hot offerings, including burgers鈥攁re priced from $5.45 to $6.45. This is above the top tier of QSR burger prices but is competitive (even if it continues to raise prices) with Arby鈥檚, Subway, Smashburger, Shake Shack and many others. Shake Shack this week introduced a聽聽fried-chicken sandwich LTO priced at $6.29.
Starbucks sandwich line also includes Turkey Pesto Panini; Roasted Tomato & Mozzarella Panini; Turkey Rustico Panini; Old-Fashioned Grilled Cheese; Chicken BLT Salad Sandwich; Egg Salad Sandwich; and Turkey and Havarti Sandwich. If you hadn鈥檛 noticed, this is more than a coffee shop.
The summer menu also expands Starbucks鈥� line of grab-and-go foods, adding a trendy Omega-3 Bistro Box in the category that already had a Protein Bistro Box, Cheese and Fruit Bistro Box and Thai-Style Peanut Chicken Wrap. The new entr茅e has smoked wild Alaskan salmon cream cheese spread, edamame hummus, Omega-3-infused trail mix with dark chocolate chunks, wheat-free crackers and cucumbers. Edamame hummus also is being introduced as a wrap.
There also is Prosciutto and Mozzarella Pinwheel Bistro Box that is being tested in Orlando, Fla., and San Diego. It features prosciutto-wrapped mozzarella, lemon-artichoke dip, olive oil and sea salt crackers, bell peppers, grapes and a chocolate truffle bar. Few fast-casual chains鈥攅ven millennial fave Chipotle鈥攃an compete with that much trendiness.
How much of a competitive force is Starbucks? Consider that it has more than聽7,300聽U.S. locations. And even though its new snack items will be available only in Starbucks鈥� 3,400 major-metropolitan stores, that鈥檚 still a greater presence than can be mustered by either of the chains often cited as 鈥渟tealth鈥� competitors for burger concepts鈥� dollars: Tim Hortons (less 1,000 U.S. stores) and Chick-fil-A (less than 2,000 stores). Keep watching Starbucks.